Award Winner / Preisträger

Otto Hahn Medal / Otto-Hahn-Medaille

The Max Planck Society has honours up to 30 young scientists and researchers each year with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements since 1978. The award comes with a monetary sum of 7500 euros as recognition. The prize is intended to motivate especially gifted junior scientists and researchers to pursue a future university or research career. Since 1978, more than 880 scientists and researchers have been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal. The award is presented during the general meeting in the following year.

The interplay between light and electronic excitation in a solid is fundamental for the operation of modern light sources and the innovation of solar cells. All relevant processes take place at the atomic scale but could so far only be accessed with limited spatial resolution. The research work of Christoph Große combines the atomic-scale precision of scanning tunneling microscopy with the high time resolution achievable in light detection. The approach opens the gate to directly access the molecular aspects of the rapid processes leading to light emission and light absorption. In his thesis the prototype of a nanoscopic light source, which is sensitively steered by a single molecule is demonstrated as well as the first single photon emitter driven by selective molecule-precise current injection. These results are landmark contributions of great fundamental and technological interest. The experimental approach developed by Christoph Große leads to major advances by pushing the spatio-temporal control to an unprecedented level and thus making possible a comprehensive analysis of the elementary energy conversion processes involving photons and electrons with atomic scale resolution.